In response to the ever-increasing human demand for quality life, antibacterial material and article industry has become a substantial trade, serving people in multiple aspects of daily life. For example, antibacterial materials, clothes and paints, which offer convenience and advantages, have been developed.
In the manufacture of antibacterial materials and articles, an antibacterial agent with various functions is usually prepared from an inorganic antibacterial agent, such as a nontoxic inorganic salt of Ag, Cu, Zn and the like, by wrapping, dispersing or introducing in other ways the salt into a matrix of an inorganic nonmetal material (e.g. SiO2 and the like). The antibacterial agent is in turn dispersed onto the surface of a substrate, thus producing a contact-type antibacterial material or article.
In making antibacterial articles with hard substrates, such as metals, ceramics, glass and rigid plastics, by means of adding antibacterial agent, however, the amount of the antibacterial agent added may be limited by the nature of these substrates. As a result, such addition may produce an antibacterial article with a low concentration of the antibacterial agent, which displays a low level of antibacterial property. Additionally, the antibacterial agent is difficult to disperse evenly, resulting in unstable antibacterial effect on the surface of the article. Furthermore, the antibacterial agent may be reduced and inactivated during high-temperature processing of such substrates.
Therefore, for hard substrates, there is a need for providing an antibacterial coating solution which can increase the amount of the antibacterial agent added, enhancing the concentration of the agent on the surface of the substrate, thus improving the antibacterial property of the resulting article, especially a contact-type antibacterial article.